WELCOME TO LIFE VISIONS

Transforming Lives by Reducing Poverty

WHO ARE WE?

Life Visions grew out of the successful programs of Housing Visions in providing quality affordable housing for low-income households and the "Choosing To Thrive" program of Visions For Change in assisting individuals in rising out of poverty.

Life Visions is a coalition of individuals dedicated to addressing poverty. We propose an innovative way to fund anti-poverty programs.

Current programs have resulted in no significant net change in poverty levels over many decades despite enormous cost.  We advocate for a proven model that can be implemented at zero net cost to government with better results.

To learn more, please visit our STRATEGY page, view our 3-page Poverty Reduction Strategy summary, and CONTACT US with questions and feedback.

BACKGROUND

Today in the United States, there are over 41 million people living below the federal poverty threshold.  Despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent directly on poverty programs by federal, state and local governments, there remains enormous personal suffering, negative impact on productivity, increased crime, and greater health care costs resulting from the huge number of people living in poverty.

It has been demonstrated that even persons in long-term poverty can work their way out of poverty if they receive training and long-term mentoring and support. This requires significant funding to support the necessary staff, however, this funding can be obtained at zero net cost to government.  It is this innovative solution that is being proposed by Life Visions.

ROLE OF LIFE VISIONS

The federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC) has been highly successful in providing affordable housing to low-income households ever since its passage by the US Congress in 1986.  Life Visions is proposing a comparable tax credit program called a Poverty Reduction Tax Credit program (PRTC) to significantly reduce the number of persons living below the federal poverty threshold.

Life Visions has been formed to accomplish the following:

• Advocate for the US Congress to pass a program that will provide tax credits to organizations that provide training and long-term mentoring and support to assist persons working their way out of poverty. Importantly, this tax credit program can be implemented at zero net cost to government.
• Apply a portion of the resulting credits to the implementation of a poverty reduction program in central New York State.
• Assist other organizations throughout the United States in their use of these credits to implement similar poverty reduction projects in their local areas.

LEARN MORE

• Details on Life Visions' strategy
• More resources